FIFA’s corruption scandal: Behind the scenes

Activists from advocacy group Avaaz demonstrate near the Hallenstadion, where the 65th FIFA Congress will take place, in Zurich, Switzerland, May 28, 2015. (Reuters / Arnd Wiegmann) / Reuters

The FIFA presidential vote on May 29 was likely to have been a foregone conclusion, seeing Sepp Blatter win a fifth term. However, following the arrests of FIFA delegates instigated by the US, both the vote and Blatter’s position could be in doubt.

Such a chain of events would benefit Blatter’s opponents, of
which there are many in the West. London, for example, has been
waging a campaign against the FIFA president ever since England
lost out to Russia for the right to host the 2018 World Cup,
which was made in Zurich in December 2010.

“The timing is really the dead giveaway. This investigation
by the media and various police authorities has been going on for
about a year now and suddenly just two days before the election,
there is all this suspicion surrounding Sepp Blatter,” said
Tony Gosling, a British-based investigative journalist.

Gosling added that FIFA is “one of the last big institutions
that is not controlled by the West,” and it was no surprise
to see how the West was backing Prince Ali of Jordan to become
the new head of world football’s governing body.

Prince Ali Bin Hussein, a major general in the Jordanian army and
married to a former CNN journalist, garnered much support from
the West in his bid to unseat the incumbent Blatter.

“This guy sounds like a perfect pliable stooge for the West.
He is a puppet kind of character. But the timing again is a dead
giveaway for me as I am reminded about all the FBI’s arrests when
the terror attacks were taking place in the United States,”
Gosling added.

Meanwhile, UK-based journalist, Neil Clark was not surprised by
the timing of the arrests.

“A lot of this [has] to do with the fact that you got all the
bigwigs of FIFA at one place in hotels in Switzerland, ahead of
Friday’s annual general meeting.”

“In terms of the FBI investigation, which we know has been
going for a long time; this was really a perfect opportunity to
arrest these people because they were in one place. And that’s a
big factor with the timing,” Clark said.

New York Times: Right place, right time

The New York Times broke the story and just happened to have two
reporters on the scene, Michael Schmidt and Sam Borden, who had
arrived at the Baur au Lac hotel, even though they allegedly had
no idea that any arrests would be made.

They managed to command the best vantage points, which gave them
a bird’s-eye view of proceedings, which they relayed on Twitter
to their followers to give extra insight into their world
exclusive. However, the journalists involved in the story
strenuously denied they had been in contact with the FBI
concerning the investigation.

"Nobody pulls you aside and says 'Here's what you need to
know,'" Matt Apuzzo, who helped co-write the story, told
Huffington Post. "It's a lot of looking for signals, making
educated guesses, and reacting accordingly. Luckily the Times is
a place that will put Mike Schmidt and Sam Borden on planes to
Switzerland and hope it works out. Because you don't know what
you're going to find until you get there."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said pressure had been applied
on Blatter "to force him to take the 2018 World Cup from
Russia."

Most recently, this came from Russophobe and US Senator John
McCain, who said: “In the light of President Blatter’s
continued support for Russia… We ask that you reconsider your
support for President Blatter’s fifth term as FIFA
president."

Blatter has been resolute in his support of Russia hosting the
2018 World Cup, despite previous calls from Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko to remove the tournament from his giant
neighbor.

“I think there has to be discussion of a boycott of this
World Cup. As long as there are Russian troops in Ukraine I think
a World Cup in that country is unthinkable,” Poroshenko told
the German newspaper Bild in March. Russia categorically denies
any military involvement in Ukraine.

Aleksey Sorokin, the head of the Russia 2018 Local Organizing
Committee, spoke exclusively to RT, saying it was impossible even
to think about the tournament not taking place in Russia in just
over three years’ time.

“Russia 2018 will not be affected by this affair. There is
another investigation going on in Switzerland. This investigation
has to do with the voting process and the selection process of
the host countries. Again, we did cooperate with the last
investigation by Mr. Garcia. We cooperated, we submitted all the
information. We don’t know how else we can help any investigator
who is interested in that,” Sorokin said.

Israel to remain in FIFA due to scandal?

Conveniently, the intervention by the US order to Swiss police to
arrest the FIFA officials for corruption came just days before
members of world football’s governing body were due to vote on
whether to kick Israel out of the organization over alleged
racism towards Palestine.

The vote is scheduled for Friday and needs a two thirds majority
of the 209 members to succeed.

The allegations regarding FIFA have proved to be very damaging;
however, for Israel they could prove to be a savior. Until
Wednesday, much of the media coverage from the FIFA congress in
Zurich was concerning whether the delegates would vote to ban
Israel from international football.

“Now, with FIFA’s boat already rocking, member states will
probably be loath to pile one controversy on another. FIFA
President Sepp Blatter, already opposed to Israel’s suspension
(he met last week with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) is probably looking to avoid
two crises on his hands at once,” the Times of Israel
stated.

Despite all the controversy facing Blatter, John Goodbody, a
UK-based sports journalist, thinks it is impossible to look any
further than Blatter getting a fifth term as FIFA President.

“The widespread belief is that Blatter will win very easily
indeed. He will win very easily for the simple reason that he
gives the voting delegates exactly what they want, which is more
money. They get the money because of the success of football.
Despite all the criticism that he has received, I would very much
doubt if he will stand down at this stage,” Goodbody said.